Jack and Jill Politics - Latest Comments in Friday Open Thread

Re: Friday Open Thread

blueskyseas — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:45:01 -0000

Her story is not about abortion, it's about someone who grew up very messed up, and continued that way for many years...

Re: Friday Open Thread

Angelar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:27:57 -0000

sending emails can be very negative if you aren't paying attention to the details....once it is gone it is out of your control.

Re: Friday Open Thread

aleth — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:57:15 -0000

We need the entire system revamped period. Its disgusting.

Re: Friday Open Thread

isonprize — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:50:39 -0000

Town, stop making sense.

DAMN.

Re: Friday Open Thread

ch555x — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:47:05 -0000

Either it was intentional or we got dummies on the fed payroll. You know how them cats like to keep things "hush, hush". Then again, these cats are known to fumble like butter-fingers on 4th & goal...

Re: Friday Open Thread

ch555x — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:41:32 -0000

Also, they were plotting to invade Afghanistan and Iraq PRIOR to 9/11. I vaguely remember news reports of this several months before the event. Heck, I even recall a 20/20 report in 1999 or 2000(?) that talked of a scenario dealing with terrorists hijacking planes to be used as "missiles". Does the MSM need help or something?

Re: Friday Open Thread

ch555x — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:28:06 -0000

nailed it!

Re: Friday Open Thread

rikyrah — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:00:14 -0000

AFTERNOON OPEN THREAD IS UP

Re: Friday Open Thread

Errington C Thompson, MD — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:50:44 -0000

well stated!

Re: Friday Open Thread

Town — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:00:54 -0000

You might be waiting a long, long time.

Re: Friday Open Thread

djchefron — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:38:29 -0000

Waiting for CNN and Wolfie to say dobbs was full of shit.

Re: Friday Open Thread

Town — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:31:21 -0000

http://www.huffingtonpost.c...

Lou Dobbs: "They (insert Hispanics here") are shooting at me.

Law Enforcement: It was probably hunters.

Re: Friday Open Thread

AM2k9 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:20:36 -0000

and their asses too.

Re: Friday Open Thread

AM2k9 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:15:54 -0000

"Yes, yes, to fight the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11." This is misleading on some many levels. First of all, the people of Afghanistan DID NOT attack us. In fact, those who attacked us died in the planes. Now, if you want to say that they were trained in Afghanistan, I'd tell you that that is a lie too. Go and read the "official" story (the 9-11 Commission Report) and you'll see that the so-called high jackers had all spent a great deal of time in the US. In other words, they didnt learn to fight planes into buildings in Kabul...but in Minneapolis, Phoenix, St. Louis.

Re: Friday Open Thread

Acts Of Faith Blog — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:49:58 -0000

New From AOFBlog: Blogger Beware: David Merfield of Upload Robots Uses Twitter and Social Media To Exploit People http://bit.ly/4uzPQE

Re: Friday Open Thread

djchefron — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:22:35 -0000

The FBI Secret War on Black America
If you have the time check it out
http://video.google.com/vid...

Re: Friday Open Thread

djchefron — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:16:59 -0000

It's Not Just About the Numbers
I wanted to echo Brother Matt's point at Foreign Policy Watch that this AP article at the Huffington Post, "Troops In Afghanistan Outnumber Taliban 12-1" written by Slobodan Lekic, does completely miss the point. We don't expect journalists to understand military theory before they write about military issues, so this doesn't surprise us. But it does bear correcting the observations within the article.

There are already more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan working with 200,000 Afghan security forces and police. It adds up to a 12-1 numerical advantage over Taliban rebels, but it hasn't led to anything close to victory.

Now, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is asking for tens of thousands more troops to stem the escalating insurgency, raising the question of how many more troops it would take to succeed.
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The 12-1 ratio may be misleading because two-thirds of the Allied force is made up of Afghans, who lack the training and experience. The Taliban usually fight in small, cohesive units made up of friends and fellow clansmen. A more meaningful ratio, then, might be 4-1 or 5-1.

Historically in guerrilla wars, security forces have usually had at least a 3-1 advantage.

Now, any strategist worth his/her salt will tell you that numerical supremacy within a theater of operations doesn't count for squat. It doesn't matter whether the US coalition outnumbers the Taliban by a ratio of 12-1, 5-1, or 3-1. What matters is what the ratio is when US forces are engaging the Taliban in tactical battles, such as those in Nuristan provinces. If the side with superior forces is spread out and trying to cover everything, then the side with fewer numbers and more agility has the combat advantage. This has happened time and time again through history.

These numbers and rations ought not to be considered in McChrystal's request for 40,000 more troops. What matters is what strategy is pursued - country-wide COIN operations, conducting combat operations, protecting "ink spots" and vital regions, or just training Afghan security forces and protecting the government. McChrystal didn't ask for enough to do a country-wide option, so I'm guessing that he's going for "ink spots" plus combat operations. President Obama seems to be leaning toward just doing the "ink spot" strategy, which might not require additional troops.

So ignore the talk about force ratios and troop increases - it's not relevant until a sustainable long-term regional strategy is developed and implemented. The real unanswered question remains, "How does this all end?"
http://crooksandliars.com/j...

Re: Friday Open Thread

Admiral_Komack — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:54:50 -0000

They can't hear you, dude; they have teabags stuck in their ears.

Re: Friday Open Thread

Admiral_Komack — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:51:36 -0000

"articulated the goal of bipartisanship"

So THAT'S what the Republicans are calling "Just Say No: The Next Generation"

Re: Friday Open Thread

Admiral_Komack — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:48:24 -0000

At the ballgame with TWO beautiful women!

Yogi, you dog!

SWEET!

Thanks to Retired U.S. Army Captain Tony Odierno and all who serve.

Re: Friday Open Thread

eclecticbrotha — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:44:27 -0000

Oh yeah. Same old old same, and just as lame.

Re: Friday Open Thread

Plantsmantx — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:13:18 -0000

This is from their website:

Do Black participants show a preference for Black over White on the race attitude IAT?
Answer: Although the majority of White respondents show a preference for White over Black, the responses from Black respondents are more varied. Although some Black participants show liking for White over Black, others show no preference, and yet others show a preference for Black over White. Data collected from this website consistently reveal approximately even numbers of Black respondents showing a pro-White bias as show a pro-Black bias. Part of this might be understood as Black respondents experiencing the similar negative associations about their group from experience in their cultural environments, and also experiencing competing positive associations about their group based on their own group membership and that of close relations.

Re: Friday Open Thread

Town — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:05:54 -0000

It says we live in a white supremacist society that showcases white/light people as being good and dark people as being bad. Just like the other night when Glen Beck had some graphics to explain taxes he showed the "good hardworking family" as the light colored figures and the "lazy family taking your tax money" as the dark colored figures.

Or just like when you go to Walmart looking for Holiday Barbie or Cabbage Patch Kids and 95% of them are white and the black dolls are pushed to the back. I just about bust a gut one Christmas Eve when a white woman was trying to get a Cabbage Patch doll for her daughter who REALLLLLY wanted one and the only one left in the store was the black one. lol

Or when the "good" black women are Tyra, Beyonce, Rihanna and Alicia Keys and the "bad" black women are the stars of Charm School and Flava of Love.

Or when you look at the Dr. Miracles' hair ad and the woman with "bad, rough hair" is a dark skinned black woman with her eyes bugging out, big lips poked out looking crazy but the beautiful black woman is the one with the smooth hair and lighter skin. Now THAT'S a miracle!

That's what it says.

Re: Friday Open Thread

djchefron — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:02:52 -0000

Why Are We Still in Afghanistan?
Yes, yes, to fight the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. But eight years later, American blood and treasure are still being poured into a country of dirt-poor, illiterate people who support themselves by growing poppy for opium and heroin under one of the most corrupt governments in the world.

As Barack Obama makes a midnight visit to honor the incoming dead and console their families, critics may sneer at his theatricality, but the President seems to be trying to clear his head and heart of the numbers and jargon that have dominated months of discussion about whether or not to send up to44,000 more troops to do what those who are now dying there in record numbers have been unable to do.

During the Bush years, despite pockets of fierce opposition, the American mindset was dominated by a Neo-Con vision, unleashed by the trauma of 9/11, of a superpower with "a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity."

That led us into Afghanistan and then Iraq, where the blood still flows in factional fighting, and now the pressure persists on a President elected with a far different vision to stay on that course at the risk of being accused of dithering and defeatism.

At home on the economy, Barack Obama has been forced into pushing for Change on an unprecedented, unsettling scale, but polling shows the American people slowly overcoming their doubts.

How would they react to a daring Change in foreign policy? What would happen if, instead of escalating troop levels, the US took a different approach? Tom Friedman suggests one possibility:

"Yes, the morning after we shrink down in Afghanistan, the Taliban will celebrate, Pakistan will quake and bin Laden will issue an exultant video.

"And the morning after the morning after, the Taliban factions will start fighting each other, the Pakistani Army will have to destroy their Taliban, or be destroyed by them, Afghanistan’s warlords will carve up the country, and, if bin Laden comes out of his cave, he’ll get zapped by a drone."

This may be as wishful as the Neo-Con faith in nation-building in Afghanistan and Pakistan that has cost Americans so much and produced so little, but it deserves as serious consideration as what Friedman describes as the result of their alternative: "China, Russia and Al Qaeda all love the idea of America doing a long, slow bleed in Afghanistan."

Those are the choices Obama is facing.
http://ajliebling.blogspot....

Re: Friday Open Thread

Plantsmantx — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:53:16 -0000

54% of blacks?